A pair of journalistic colleagues have called for Arne Slot to make two particular changes to his starting line-up for Liverpool’s clash against Nottingham Forest this afternoon.
The Reds have had a very settled team in the opening weeks of the season, with only 12 players having started a Premier League match and all but two of those selected from the off in every game thus far (WhoScored).
However, today’s fixture is the first of seven in 22 days and comes off the back of an international break, so the head coach could well take advantage of having almost his entire squad available to him to keep certain players fresh.
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In the Liverpool Echo, Ian Doyle made the case for Darwin Nunez and the fit-again Curtis Jones to be handed their first starts of the campaign, with Diogo Jota and Alexis Mac Allister duly being rested.
His colleague Paul Gorst also advocated those two alternations to the Reds’ starting XI, and one other change to his predicted line-up sees Cody Gakpo coming in for Luis Diaz on the left flank.
You can make a case for Slot sticking with the line-up which has served him exceedingly well thus far, or for the Liverpool boss to make the most of what could be the rare luxury of having virtually a full squad available and rotate players after a busy international window.
The changes on which Doyle and Gorst agree make sense, with Nunez remaining on Merseyside due to his ban for Uruguay and therefore being very fresh, even if Jota has had nearly a full week to prepare as Portugal last played on Sunday.
Also, with Jones recovered from the knock which kept him out of the last two matches and Mac Allister enduring fitness concerns while away with Argentina in South America, we can understand why the 23-year-old may be given the nod ahead of the ex-Brighton star today.
As for Gakpo replacing Diaz, we get the logic of resting the Colombian after his transatlantic travels (and we’d have every confidence in the Dutchman to impress), but it’d be extremely hard to drop our number 7 after his double against Manchester United took him to three goals in as many Liverpool games.
These selection dilemmas illustrate just how strong a squad Slot can enjoy when almost everyone is fit, and it’s something that he should relish before the fixture pile-up inevitably narrows his scope for selection as the season progresses.
As ever, we have full trust in the man tasked with selecting the starting XI to make the right calls based on the circumstances at play and the context of this game around other matches.
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